Holdfast: Nations At War News

Follow Us On Steam
https://store.steampowered.com/developer/anvilgamestudios


Rally the troops and prepare to march to pastures new with the release of the Battlefields Expanded major update! Featuring the long awaited queue system, 8 entirely new maps, a complete overhaul to existing game levels along with a volley full of features pertaining to Holdfast's squad system and so much more.



Take a read of everything below to get a taste of the scale this update has to offer.

[h2]British Person Simulator[/h2]

Thanks to a complete overhaul of our back-end across previous updates totaling to over 9 months worth of development hours, we’ve been able to develop some long awaited features for the game. One such feature is a server queue system which will now be implemented across all official servers.



When a server becomes full, players wishing to connect will be placed within a queue. As slots become available your position in the queue will advance until you are the next to join. Players will also be prompted to join a recommended server should they not wish to wait around for a slot to become available.

You’re also free to continue browsing the main menu or head over to the barracks to customise your character as you wait in queue.

[h2]8 New Battlefields[/h2]

To compliment the new queue system and to help keep fighting engaging for those populating fresh servers, 8 entirely new maps have been added into the public rotation.

Buckland Banks, Crossroads, Convoy, Domont Gardens, Isle of Wake, Lindisfarne, Tropics and Vestiges are all playable across both the Army Battlefield and Army Conquest game modes. Each map features a unique environment and design along with some new playful additions that’ll make for some good fun.



[h2]Reinventing The Wheel[/h2]

Alongside the new additions to the battlefields of Holdfast. we also took the time to go back and rework some of the game's longest serving maps, some of which dated back to the game's release on Early Access in 2017.

A good majority of these changes were environmental changes, especially the Oak Environment which was entirely overhauled (thanks to the Oak summoning circle 🌳) but with some maps we paid extra attention to the design of their gameplay areas and issue some much needed improvements.

We’ve made sure to pay proper tribute to these classics by staying true to their character while bringing them into the new age. Check out the full change log for a list of all the maps that have undergone a redesign.



[h2]Squading Up[/h2]

This update also brings with it a plethora of quality of life changes, namely we’ve taken a look at the officer squad camp system to further improve the flow of both placing and joining squad camps.

A new ability bind for placing the squad camp has been added for the officer along with the new 'Reinforce' order allowing them to ping a location to direct their squad members. Officers now gather experience for kills earned by their squad members.



Gather up squad mates with greater ease while playing as the officer class! Now players will be able to enlist in your squad simply by running up to you or your squad camp and pressing their ‘USE’ key.



Additionally, all players no yet in a squad will be notified with a small widget when a squad camp is placed for the first time. Simply hold ‘USE’ to join a squad when this quick widget pops up and you’ll respawn at the camp upon next life.



In efforts to improve the general siege experience, attacking forces are now able to employ the use of Officer Squad Camps in order to gain additional attacking positions during a siege promoting a much more engaging gameplay for those on both sides of the engagement.



The locations in which these tents can be placed has been heavily restricted in order to maintain a good game-play balance and reinforcements have been adjusted accordingly.

We look forward to welcoming any and all feedback regarding these changes.

[h2]Quality Of Life Changes[/h2]

Finally a brief look at some of the many quality of life additions we’ve implemented this update. On first game launch players will now be prompted to calibrate their monitors to the desired brightness, this can be adjusted again via the games video settings tab.



For further clarity on intractable objects a new highlight effect will show around objects which you can interact with. Similarly, sapper objects that cannot be built due to a obstruction will now appear slightly transparent.



Faction balancing has also been adjusted to prevent one faction from having an overwhelming number of player on low-pop servers and will reactively adjust according to the number of players in the server.

This post truly doesn’t do justice to the amount of new features, changes and general development time taken for this major update for the game. It comes as part of one of many updates focused to continue with our aim of bring Holdfast into the new era.

Be sure to take a read of the entire changelog below and keep an eye out for more yet to come. Your support always comes most appreciated and it allows us to continue developing the game we all love. Until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:

discord.gg/holdfastgame







Changelog 95 - Game Version 2.22.9014.15198

Count ● 17 new features and improvements.
● 33 gameplay additions.
● 2 optimisations.
● 3 quality of life additions.
● 2 graphical additions.
● 4 server configuration additions.
● 99 bug fixes.

Changelog 96 - Game Version 2.22.9015.17582

● Solved an instance of performance degradation.

Click here for the full change log.





- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy, Charles:Cute_Rat: & Winston (The Cat).

Engage in large scale Holdfast battles on the go with the official verification and release of Holdfast: Nations At War on the Steam Deck. From land to sea you'll now be able to partake in all that Holdfast goodness in powerful handheld format.

As part of our efforts to bring Holdfast into the new age, a portion of the team has been hard at work not only making Holdfast accessible for those who prefer to play with a controller but also gaining the verification and official support for the Steam Deck console.



Development with the Steam Deck was pleasantly straightforward and a lot of the game worked with little to no intervention. With a few touch ups and thanks to the Steam Deck's powerful hardware and brilliant design, it happily runs Holdfast and it's shenanigans with great graphical fidelity and at an impressive frame rate.



[h2]On The Horizon[/h2]

Following up this Steam Deck release, next month will introduce the Battlefields Expanded update, the largest undertaking of map reworks we have done to date. Featuring improved gameplay designs, new environments and much more. Every single Nations At War map has been looked over and updated to our current standard.



But that's not all! Alongside the map reworks we will be bringing 8 entirely new public play battlefields that will be made available for both low and high population servers. These maps will compliment the queue system that'll also be featured within this update.



Quality of life improvements have also been on the forefront of this update and part of this will include easier ways to join squads created by officers. Get ready to rally the troops! One of these new ways will be a prompt on the officer itself allowing nearby players to simply interact with the officer to join their squad.



The above is just a taste of a plethora of new features and additions to the game, there's plenty more that'll be dropping with this update. Public testing is currently ongoing with an estimated release scheduled for next month once the testing phase has concluded.

Want to take part in the next Public BETA Test? Head over to our Official Holdfast BETA Discord server to get involved and provide feedback.

Join The BETA Discord

Stay tuned for more to come and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:





- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy, Charles:Cute_Rat: & Winston (The Cat).

Summer has officially arrived! Grab yourself an ice cream down the beachfront of Balamor Bay, while you soak up the sun and take a read through this summer sale exclusive preview of things soon to come.



[h2]Summer Sale[/h2]

To celebrate the bright blue skies that are now upon us Holdfast will be partaking in the Steam Summer Sale. Now you’ll be able to pick up the Holdfast: Nations At War base game along with all its DLCs at a discounted price for the duration of the sale.

Holdfast will be reduced by 65% with the DLCs being discounted by up to 60%.

Holdfast: Collectors Edition
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/13424/Holdfast_Collectors_Edition/

Napoleonic Pack
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/25822/Napoleonic_Pack/

[h2]Increased XP Event[/h2]

Get a head start on the final month of this season's leaderboards with this limited time increased XP event. Starting from 26/06/24 and running until 12/07/24 players will be able to gather an increase of 1.5x experience. It's the perfect opportunity to gather a head-start on obtaining medals and those cosmetic unlocks you've always wanted.


You'll also be assisting your regiment to rank up! If you’re not already in a regiment why not enlist today and partake in privately organised linebattles and events. There’s a plethora to choose from and you’ll be bound to find one that suits your preferred playing style.

Check out the Regiment Registry in-game or chat on the official Discord server to enlist in a regiment today.

discord.gg/holdfastgame



[h2]A Sneak Preview[/h2]

Continuing on our mission to bring Holdfast into the new age we’ll soon be introducing a long awaited feature along with some complimentary additions bringing in additional content to the game's Napoleonic front.

A queue system for joining full servers will be implemented within the next major update. If a server is full you will be placed into a limited queue while awaiting for a slot to open. The days of spamming left click will be finally over. :aurapray:



Those waiting in the queue will be able to navigate the main menu, customise in the barracks and view leaderboards while they wait to join. Once a slot opens up you’ll be given an audio and visual alert to inform you that you’ll soon be loading into the game.



To compliment this feature and to encourage more players to join non-full servers we’ll also be adding in a good few smaller scale maps featuring unique designs that can support more engaging gameplay regardless of the player count.

Here’s a preview of two of the new maps ‘Vestiges’ and ‘Buckland Banks’ that’ll be coming with the same update.

Vestiges

Buckland Banks

Stay tuned for more to come and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:





- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy, Charles:Cute_Rat: & Winston (The Cat).

Greeting good fellows of the Holdfast community! Today releases the second update in a series of smaller releases tackling some of the bugs and player feedback following the latest major update release.

In-line with community feedback tracers from other players will be shorter and fade faster while still maintaining that chaotic feeling of musket balls flying around you. Your own trail will remain as it was before to provide a visual feedback to adjust your shots.



The adjustment on the melee mode camera to be accurately centred has been reverted to ensure the melee experience remains as it was before. We’ve also fixed the slight visual delay on the flintlock mechanism animation when firing that was making the firearms feel unresponive.



Additionally we've tackled instances with the Steam-deck that wouldn't allow players to use a keyboard and mouse as their main input if desired. We also introduced the ability for the UI to be scaled to increase clarity and size of the elements for those on smaller displays.



Make sure your game has been updated to Version 2.21 to see game servers in the lobby.

Stay tuned for more to come and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:

The Plight of War OST
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2692500/Holdfast_OST__The_Plight_of_War

discord.gg/holdfastgame






Changelog 94 - Game Version 2.21.0000.0000

Features & Improvements (7) ● Holdfast now features full controller support thanks to the addition of an on-screen keyboard.
● You can now control ship sails when using a controller.
● Introduced a free-roam sensitivity setting for controllers.
● You can now set the controller’s dead zone to a minimum of 0.05.
● You can now have different ‘Melee Direction Input Type’ settings between controller and keyboard.
● Introduced a setting allowing individuals to specifically define the control’s input they want to use disabling auto-detection. Search for ‘Input To Use’ under the game’s settings.
● You can now adjust the game’s UI scale. Search for ‘In-Game UI Scale’ and ‘Menu UI Scale’.

Gameplay Additions (6) ● Adjusted melee camera pitch based on player feedback.
● Tackled an issue concerning players commenting experiencing a slight delay when firing.
* Shortened and made quicker bullet pass-by trails from firearms by enemies based on player feedback.
● Performed changes to tackle an issue with FOL being stricter than the Elf Auto Admin mod iteration if you don’t define any of the new built-in commands in the server configuration file.
● Adjusted the time it takes for auto-aim to lock off after firing to improve robustness.
● Admin reason defaults to no text in the dialogue box rather than ‘None’.

Optimisations (1) ● Tackled issues concerning instances of memory not getting released in between map loads.

Bug FIxes (29) ● Experimental fix towards an issue where the player’s screen turns black due to upscaling technologies.
● Experimental fix towards an issue which caused drawn tracers through console commands to be mismatched.
● Solved an issue which allowed Sapper defences to be built inside one another.
● Solved an exploit which allowed the Flag Bearer to sit while having a flag equipped.
● Solved an issue which prevented individuals from spectating other players through the ‘P’.
● Solved an issue where the main menu appeared broken if you disconnected at the exact same moment the map was rotating.
● Solved an issue where the map rotation admin chat entries didn’t show the correct rotation index.
● Experimental fix towards an issue causing the game not to launch on Steam Deck.
● Solved an issue where the mouse and keyboard weren’t working when the Steam Deck was connected to the dock.
● Solved an issue where sometimes inputs were not being recognized on the Steam Deck.
● Solved an issue where firearm tracers wouldn’t show when spectating other players.
● Removed multiple unnecessary logs from the game client.
● Experimental fix towards an instance which caused players to get stuck on map load.
● Solved an issue which caused the server-disconnect message to no longer show.
● Solved an issue where you’d be unable to navigate if a faction becomes full while playing with a controller.
● Solved an issue with rocket launchers not being destructible when deployed.
● Solved multiple server-side exceptions.
● Solved multiple exceptions on the client which occurred infrequently.
● Solved an issue where the chat box would close when you respawn.
● Solved an issue where the reason for a banned individual wouldn’t show when the player gets disconnected.
● Solved an issue where carriable ladders remained highlighted after being placed.
● Solved an issue with the delayed all charge not firing until round_spawn_close_timer_seconds has passed.
● Experimental fix towards an issue with the Sapper prop states desynching.
● Solved an issue with the equipment spawn tab not correctly resetting between map loads.
● Solved an issue with the Dark-Night weather preset using the Clear-Night skybox.
● Solved an issue where sometimes radials would overlay one another if buttons were pressed in quick succession.
● Solved an issue where cancelling the password prompt using a controller loses navigation.
● Solved an issue where pressing the ‘Select’ key when the disconnect reason is showing will make you connect to a server instead.
● Solved an issue with the firearm trails not looking as intended on lower-quality settings.

Hotfix (16) - 01/07/2024 ● Fixed the faction selection emblems not being accurate to the actual faction selection.
● Player VoIP icons will now change colours based on whether they are speaking in proximity or in Officer chat.
● Fixed in-game leaderboard not showing correctly.
● Fixed splash screen password not being censored.
● Fixed players being unable to re-open the song's radial menu while playing in-world instruments.
● Fixed pause menu being forcibly closed on respawn.
● Players can no longer kick unless they're in the correct melee state.
● Fixed the on-screen keyboard being rendered behind certain UI elements.
● Improved visibility of some social-related panels. E.g. Joining a friend's session and splash screen password prompt.
● Improved responsiveness for spawn menu panel, leaderboards and control settings.
● Updated alignment of server browser's server name header.
● Leaderboard images now pop out when using a controller to navigate.
● Added a separate hotkey to access music player controls and updated the song selection behaviour.
● Fixed several issues related to un-initialized faction data.
● Fixed UI scale indicator not showing in the main menu.
● Updated available banners in the regiment registry.





- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy, Charles:Cute_Rat: & Winston (The Cat).

Greeting good fellows of the Holdfast community! We're releasing the first update in a series of smaller releases tackling issues with performance degradation on game servers. Based on community feedback we've also included a setting enabling individuals to bind their fists back to the first weapon slot.

Be sure to update the game to Version 2.20 to see game servers in the lobby. Once-more we thank you.

Stay tuned for more to come and until next time, may good health be yours. :oheart:

Napoleon's Rise DLC
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2692480/Holdfast_Nations_At_War__Napoleons_Rise/

discord.gg/holdfastgame







Changelog 93 - Game Version 2.20.0000.0000

Gameplay Additions (1) ● Introduced a new setting enabling individuals to switch their fists to the first weapon slot.
» Go to Settings > Game > Search for 'Fists First' > Turn to 'On'.

Quality of Life (1) ● Improved text wrapping of controller actions. Character abilities are now combined into one label.

Bug Fixes (12) ● Solved an issue that degraded server performance over time. We'll continue monitoring.
● Solved missing materials appearing in pink on a group of object overrides.
● Solved artillery claiming notifications being sent to everyone.
● Solved non-admin players being able to switch to the admins chat channel.
● Solved typo in 'Equip Flag Or Instrument'.
● Solved multi-bind action in 'Switch Voice Channel' not showing the binds.
● Solved capture point showing twice on Heartmound.
● Solved swivel cannons being invisible on Port Nile.
● Removed duplicate cannon on Oasis. This caused players to be unable to move the piece.
● Removed duplicate house on Camp Salamanca.
● Experimental fix towards an issue which caused the displayed server not to sync up with the internal targeted server, causing players to join the wrong server.
● Experimental fix for a crash on game load if the keybind.ini file path is not found.





- Anvil Game Studios

Refleax, Rycon, Dreas, Walki, Jackson, Harper, Storey, UberJuice, Stan, Gest, Matt, Grandayy, Charles:Cute_Rat: & Winston (The Cat).